Three WordCamps in three weekends? Seems a bit crazy but I did it: Miami, Orange County, and this past weekend, Denver. Here’s what I learned from Denver. Break Free of Your Assumptions “Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.” – Isaac Asimov Our brains love to take complex ideas and simplify them so they are easier to understand. From what I’ve read, it is a primary driver in our species’ ability to survive. This is where our assumptions come from. Problem is, assumptions can be hard to break, and can […]

With the WordPress JSON REST API (or the WP-API) slated to be included in core by the end of 2015, there are lots of different ways people are planning to use it to build cool things. This article takes a closer look at client side applications using the WordPress JSON REST API, and explains exactly why you should be excited about them. Web Applications and MVC The difference between a web application and a traditional website is confusing as the line is often blurred. I won’t get too much into detail, but this article on Vision Mobile can help you better differentiate the two. […]

Quite possibly the best thing about WordPress is the accessibility to a large number of themes and plugins. No matter what type of functionality or feature you are looking at, there are specialized themes and plugins for the job—be it for forums, magazine sites, portfolio blogs, tumblogs, and so on. That said, there is also a fine line between themes and plugins in terms of functionality—themes give a distinct look and feel to your WordPress site, whereas plugins allow you to extend your site or do more with it. But what happens when themes decide to cross that fine line and perform […]

At WordCamp Miami, which I attended recently, one of the most popular topics of discussion was leveraging WordPress to power mobile applications. At this point, I think everyone is an agreement that you can, in fact, use WordPress to power both web and mobile applications. Now it’s time to answer the questions “Should I use it?” and, if so, “how do I do it?” These questions don’t have one simple answer. In fact, they are highly contingent on the project, budget, requirements, and competencies of those involved. Like every other type of project, how well you plan it is going […]

Development for WordPress 4.3 is well under way, with the core team already working hard to hit the proposed release date—tentatively penciled in for 18 August 2015. As the weeks and months progress, we’ll get a better idea of what’s in store for the WordPress core in 4.3. We’ve already discussed better passwords, but today I want to focus on changes to the WordPress Customizer. WordPress 4.2 introduced some small improvements to the Customizer by allowing you to quickly and easily switch between your installed themes. The improvements to the Customizer won’t stop there, however, and the next few versions […]

It all started with an origami crane. I meticulously assembled it while waiting in line for lunch. This origami crane was the entry in a raffle for an iPad mini, offered by SiteGround hosting; but the prize wasn’t what I was after. I honestly didn’t even care what my crane would look like when I was finished. Instead, I enjoyed the process of making the crane. I’ll come back to this crane in a moment, but as WordCamp Orange County carried along, I saw one theme underlying the entire event. It was passion. Passion for the Community The WordPress community is full […]

You’ve probably been asked, “Which is better: WordPress or Squarespace?” Seeing as we are part of the WordPress community, you and I are obviously biased towards WordPress. Many times we will instinctively say WordPress is better without having an exact reason. Luckily, there really is no real answer to this question. Instead, the question needs to be rephrased as, “Which is better for the user and the project?” Let’s examine this. Who Should Use Squarespace? Even as a WordPress developer, I won’t hesitate to say that Squarespace is one amazing platform. There are many projects for which Squarespace is the […]

In my last article for Torque, I talked about marketing automation for Easy Digital Downloads. The idea for that article grew out of the work that I’m currently doing to scale my own business—which has been going pretty well so far, but has not yet reached enough people to have the kind of success that we are shooting for long term. Marketing automation is one of many tools to grow a business. As the WordPress ecosystem matures, more and more developers are making the leap from freelancing or agency work to creating and selling products. These products range from WordPress plugins […]

Long gone are the days in which websites are a text-only experience. These days using different types of media to improve web content is not only possible but mandatory. Using images, videos, and other media is important to enhance the user experience, evoke emotions, break up large pieces of text, and emphasize points made in the post. It’s no wonder the demand for free stock photos has dramatically increased. In WordPress, all media files get stored in the media library where they can be searched, edited, and removed if no longer needed. Recent updates have greatly improved this part of the […]

Torque asked me to cover WordCamp Miami. I got the email basically as I was getting off my plane in Fort Lauderdale, Florida,  and instantly, I felt like Johnny Depp’s character in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (minus the copious amount of drugs and Benicio Del Toro as my lawyer). This was only my second WordCamp, and the only other I’d been to was tiny in comparison. So I didn’t know what to expect, let alone what to write about. Yes, during every talk, I took pages of notes, and lots of pictures, but why rehash what everyone said? […]